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“Itzel.” Gloria was all about looking down her nose at the staff.
Itzel glared at me as she walked through the living room. “Sort her out, will you, Duke? We’re eating lunch soon, and I’mnotserving her.”
Gloria bristled at that. “How dare you?”
Itzel didn’t respond, just walked out of the living room. Elena and I could not hold back our smiles. You had to hand it to Itzel; the woman had a core of steel.
I kissed Elena again, this time on her lips.
I rose and walked up to my mother, who looked at me with wounded betrayal. “You put a hit on your son?”
She took a step back. “That’s a disgusting thing to say.”
“You know, I thought,nah, she’d never do that. She’s manipulative, she’s selfish, she’s a malicious, vindictive bitch, but she won’t try to kill her own child, would she?”
“I’d never, baby.” Her voice trembled.
“I think you did. And you know what? So do the cops.” I had no clue what the cops thought, but I wanted to make her squirm.
“What? That’s absurd.” She looked at me with her blue eyes, the ones I inherited. On her, they were always innocent with the power to manipulate me. Fill them with tears, and I’d have done anything for her. Not anymore.
“I don’t think you came up with the idea.” I stepped forward, and she backed up a little. I wanted her to get the fuck out of the house. “You arethatevil but notthatsmart.”
Her eyes narrowed. Narcissists had big egos if nothing else.
But she smothered her first instinct to fight me on her intelligence. Then she sniffed, blinking rapidly like an ingenue. "I can’t believe you’re saying these things. After everything I’ve done for you?—"
“Oh, come on, Gloria, that dog won’t hunt,” I drawled. “See, I know who you are now.”
Would I ever have seen it if I hadn’t come back to Wildflower Canyon? What if I’d just sold the place off and never given in to the temptation to comehomeand see Elena? Would I have continued to be my mother’s unwitting bitch for life?
“Baby—”
“Don’t ever come back,” I said softly, ominously, my face close to hers so she’d see I meant business. “Never talk to my fiancée or me again. Leave. And watch your back. Like I said, law enforcement is very interested in who you’re keeping company with these days.”
She got flustered. “Thatwoman came to me. Ineverapproached her.”
That woman?
“You Goddamn bitch,” Elena shouted, her voice shaking with rage. She stalked toward my mother, fists clenched, fire in her eyes.
I moved fast, wrapping an arm around her waist and pulling her back against me before she could get too close. She struggled, breathing hard, but I held firm. “Elena, no,” I murmured near her ear, feeling the tension radiate off her in waves.
She was furious—hell, I was, too—but this wasn’t the way.
Gloria all but ran out of the house.
Elena wiggled against me.
“Settle down,Florecita,before you rip open your stitches.”
Elena grunted.
“You do that, it’s going to piss me off.”
She relaxed, and I turned her around. “Where did the quiet woman I met when I first came tothe ranch go? You know, the one who was calm all the time no matter what shit I said to her.”
She looked perplexed at that. “She’s your mother, and she’s trying to hurt you. That’s fucked up in so many ways.”